Sunday, December 12, 2010

CHE > iPhone Textbook Apps Just Keep Coming

It may not be great as a phone–don’t scream, Apple fans, but the iPhone has taken some knocks on call quality and battery life, though the latest version has improved–but the iPhone is getting more and more fans as a college-textbook reader.

CourseSmart, an e-textbook supplier, has come out with a reader app that draws on a library of 7,000 college texts from a dozen publishers, including McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Pearson, and Elsevier.

The app is free, and the e-books seem to be cheaper than hardcovers. [snip].

For algebra students who need extra help, Pearson Higher Education has rolled out its AlgebraPrep app, with tutorials and mini-tests you can take at the student union while waiting for class to begin. [snip]

Students can even use the iPhone to buy paper textbooks online. Bigwords, a book-shopping Web site, now offers its own app that does price comparisons of particular books from various online sellers.[snip].

Finally, and this online development has nothing to do with an iPhone, those who don’t want to buy can rent. Cengage Learning, a large publisher, announced today it will start CengageBrain in December.

That Web site will offer students the option of renting books–in either electronic or paper form–and returning them after 60, 90, or 130 days. The company claims the price will be 40 to 70 percent lower than the retail buying option. [snip].

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About Me

I formerly had primary responsibilities for Collection Development, Instruction, and Reference and Research Services in Chemical and Biological Engineering; Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering; Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering; and Mechanical Engineering; Alternative Energy; Environment Sciences with the Library of Iowa State University. I was employed from April 1987 to July 2014.
Prior to joining ISU, I served as the Museum Librarian at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, and as an Assistant Librarian with the Library of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, my hometown.
I received my Master of Science degree in Library Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign in 1975, and my undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Lehman College of the City University of New York, The Bronx.